Halloween contacts spook eye docs

Contact lenses that give wearers eyes like a cat, zombie or vampire might be just the thing to pull a Halloween costume together.

Suzanne Hoholik, The Columbus Dispatch

Contact lenses that give wearers eyes like a cat, zombie or vampire might be just the thing to pull a Halloween costume together.

But unless you’ve been measured and fit by an eye professional, you probably shouldn’t wear them.

The fashion or decorative lenses are being sold across Ohio at costume stores, beauty-supply shops and gas stations without a prescription, which violates federal and state laws. They’re also available online and sell for about $30.

Contact lenses, whether they have corrective power or not, may only be sold with a prescription.

“It’s a big problem around the Halloween time because you see all these Halloween shops pop up and they sell them,” said Nancy Manns, executive director of the Ohio Optical Dispensers Board.

“We’ve noticed them in the last few years ... (businesses) make a pretty good profit off of them.”

This includes Rock Star Fashion on Lockbourne Road, which was issued an order in November. The store still is selling the lenses for $35 a pair.

Manns said the board follows up with phone calls and spot visits to the businesses.

She said they received a complaint that Rock Star Fashion was still selling the lenses and a second cease-and-desist notice has been sent. If that’s ignored, the board will go to the state attorney general’s office for an injunction.

The lenses are popular with teenagers, who sometimes share them with friends or pack them away for later use. Either situation can create bacteria and cause an eye infection, experts warn.

All eyes are different shapes and sizes, and these one-size-fits-all contacts can scrape the cornea — the eye’s outermost layer — and prevent oxygen from getting to them.

“People think that they’re just buying something like a T-shirt — put it on, it fits and you’ll be fine,” said Dr. Randall McLaughlin, assistant professor of clinical ophthalmology at Ohio State University.

“I had a patient three or four years ago who picked up contacts in a beauty shop and wore them Friday night,” said Dr. Donald Faimon, president of the Ohio Optometric Association. “On Saturday morning, she called us with red inflamed eyes.”

This patient had 20-20 vision, but the scar from the decorative contact left her with 20-50 vision.

Faimon sells decorative lenses at his Cincinnati optical center and is happy to provide them to patients who have been measured, fitted and trained how to care for them.